Review: Conner by Miranda Stork

Conner Review: Thoughts As I Read

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Conner by Miranda Stork follows Erin, a young psychologist who is very driven and focused on her work. She lives alone and seems to have very little memory of her past or that of her parents. Erin is asked to work with a patient named Conner who believes himself to be a werewolf. Though she initially does not, of course, believe in Conner’s story she finds herself drawn to him as if they have some sort of connection she is unaware of. Erin is quickly swept into Conner’s world as he tries to protect her from an evil that has pursued her for hundreds of years. As Erin finds out more about this new world that she seems to be intricately linked to will she be able to find out who she really is, and if she does will she like what she finds?

WARNING: As I was reading this book I decided that a more play-by-play approach was appropriate for Conner. As such there are SPOILERS throughout. If you haven’t read Conner already and plan to in the future you may not want to continue. Thank you and I hope you enjoy. 🙂

My Thoughts While Reading Conner

A werewolf sneaks into the house AND almost kills Rob (a nurse that is overseeing Conner’s treatment in Erin’s home) without anyone noticing and then somehow sneaks back out without anyone seeing or hearing it. The only sound is Rob’s scream.

-This seems to be an easy way out for the author to get Erin to believe in werewolves.

Conner had encountered Erin before, when she happened to have been dealing with a vampyre, but chose not to mention it until she spoke about her time with that vampyre (Stefan).

-Wouldn’t this have been a good tie in to his supernatural existence, her foreknowledge?

Conner comes in the day after he turns Rob into a werewolf asking if Rob is alright with the decision and Rob nonchalantly says totally, I’m just happy to be alive.

-Has no questions about there even being werewolves in existence and just readily goes along with his new apparent nature as if it were nothing more than a doctor having said they gave him a shot. Either he’s ridiculously thickheaded or…no that has to be it..

Conner mentions knowing all about Erin and she barely even seems unnerved.

-Stalkerish anyone? How is this not having more attention drawn to it?

Conner almost kills one of the guards and then just stops himself enough to knock him out instead. He convinces Erin not to be afraid by simply saying he wasn’t going to kill the guard, just hurt him. Erin then goes with him on a jaunt in the wilderness…at night.

-Are you freaking kidding me? Werewolf? Check. Uncontrollable rage? Check. Out in the wilderness with no guards when other werewolves had just attacked Rob? Check. Yet she is STILL going with him, with no protection, out into the wilderness? This girl is nuts.

Rob is dying after being attacked by werewolves because he didn’t have any information on Conner’s location yet he has no anger towards Conner and is completely accepting of his fate.

-WHAT?! Wait…what?! Again, he must be a dunce, but still, you aren’t even a little upset at the guy who is responsible for you getting killed? I don’t even know…

Conner is confronting Matthew (another werewolf) in a rather violent manner and Erin FINALLY gets a bit freaked out wishing she had stayed where she was and not having come with a mad werewolf.

-It took her THAT long to fully grasp Conner is a psychopath? DANG girl you are thick. Maybe she’ll finally leave him…though I doubt it.

So now we enter a scene where Erin is drunk and mentions her and Conner’s little kiss way back in the beginning of the story. He sends her to bed and when he returns to his room starts to sob.

-Are we supposed to feel bad for him? Seriously?! The guy is a basket case! I’m sure psychos have feelings but this is just a tad difficult to grasp. Not feeling it.

Alright, so immediately after the previous scene we get Erin’s perspective as she is hurt by his dismissal. Remember she’s still drunk here. She gets into the shower and it is made very clear that she is not thinking clearly. In comes Conner opening the shower door and apologizing when he sees Erin inside. They then proceed to have some rated R relations.

-Wait a darn minute! Obviously if the shower was running and their bathroom was only shared by the two of them Conner KNEW Erin was in there. Remember she’s drunk here so he knew she wasn’t thinking with a clear head. So he then proceeds to work his manly magic over her (not in the magical sense just a figure of speech) until they do the deed. He’s essentially raping her and we’re supposed to think this is a nice, sweet moment…right. You wonder why I couldn’t feel sympathy when he was crying… *pukes*

So Erin being the curious person she is decides it would be a good idea to check out this underground labyrinth that she discovered earlier. She discovers some prisoners and rather than turn around and leave she pursues them, checking out the corridors and rooms. Eventually she runs into a werewolf that has been appearing to her in recent times and despite the fact that the previous night it was telling her to MURDER a lady she TRUSTS it and follows it down more of the labyrinth of sorts until she is trapped behind bars.

-She’s trusting this werewolf? What in the heck is going on here?! She only followed it because it told her Conner was coming to find her and she was more scared of her new “lover” than someone she has never actually seen who has been torturing her when she is in a dreamlike state. Ya this makes total sense!

As Erin is trapped in her cell she has the realization that she has fallen in love with Conner and wonders to herself why she doesn’t trust him.

-Maybe because he is a freaking nut job? Or perhaps because the only time you two did the deed it was when you were drunk and not thinking clearly? Perhaps it is his expressions of pure rage that don’t seem to be able to be stopped by anyone? *sigh*

Erin escapes from the cell with help from her cellmate/werewolf Gwyn. She runs out into the street where a couple driving by find her before she collapses.

-Somehow in the three days or so Erin was trapped in her captivity, at least according to her count, Conner and the others never came down to the underground area to search for her and when she ran out to the road she wasn’t noticed. Um, alrighty then…

So Erin gets brought to a hospital where she finds out that she has been hallucinating all of the time with Conner as well as Conner himself. She, of course, doesn’t believe this but there is no evidence of the killings of Rob or the doctor Conner knew or her having administered Conner’s care or even of Conner himself. She goes back to the manor she stayed at and nothing was as it seemed. Her room was just an old mattress and a cardboard box with her things in it, the bathroom an old leaky pipe.

-This certainly is quite the twist I’ll admit, though it is slightly frustrating after all that had gone on, my interest is peaked fully for the first time in a while. 🙂

Erin searches her place for anything related to Conner and finds the folder with his picture and information in it hidden in part of her couch!

-So now she isn’t hallucinating and is being validated, things are quite intriguing indeed!

Erin finds a second piece of paper attached to one of the other notes and it calls her Erin Athol rather than Erin Miller telling her to go wait in the manor. She immediately heads back to Ireland.

-I don’t know if I should be excited at this point or bewildered. She’s heading BACK to where she was held captive and had to escape?! She’s going to wait in a place that seemed almost completely different inside then when she was last there? I guess we shall see…

Erin receives a call from Sukema, one of the group that was at the manor, where she is warned not to go because they know, they likely meaning the other werewolves that had trapped her before. She, of course, decides to go anyway.

-Despite the fact that they know she is coming she is heading to the manor anyway! This girl is not the brightest bulb.

Erin finds a key and enters the manor. She had the realization that she was in the same position as the young girl in a horror movie who walks into the room where she heard a noise and it becomes obvious she is the victim. She decides to keep exploring anyway, of course.

-I give up. She’s completely nuts. She’s risking her life on the slim chance she finds Conner and friends and that they too don’t end up killing her at some point, oh and don’t forget what charming Conner is really like. What a nut job.

We come to find out Erin is actually a werewolf, the girl Conner had been mentioning before, and his and Filtiarn’s (the guy who imprisoned her earlier) Alpha. Her past that she remembers, or did, is a product of false memory syndrome that was the result of being in a coma.

-So here we have a classic twist where the main character’s “real” world is shattered by a realization that their life as they know it is false. It was done relatively well here, but it is a pretty common, and simple way of changing things. I’m ambivalent as a reader at this point. Once you establish that the character’s “real” past is irrelevant the future seems to matter much less, anything can happen, there are no more limits so everything has a lesser impact.

Erin is, according to Filtiarn, the first pure werewolf in existence. So that’s some pretty crazy news.

-Again, impact lessened, regardless of who she is the rest of what has happened to her in her “real life” seems irrelevant.

In one of the more dramatic twists it appears Conner and Filtiarn are the same person. They are a split personality, Conner was the initial personality and then Filtiarn showed up.

-Now THIS is a twist that peaked my interest. It is, however, another canceler by that I mean something that makes other significant parts of the story seem less relevant, but at least it captured my attention and it does answer some questions posed earlier on!

In the end Filtiarn tricks Erin into picking up her sword and the spell that was cast on her years ago to allow the evil side of her to overpower the good returns, restoring her memory, and her ruthlessness.

-The ending of the book was a tad on the obvious side, though seemingly necessary for the series to continue. I can’t say I’m surprised, but I suppose it was a solid ending as far as it goes.

Thus ends my play-by-play thought process as I read Conner. My clear frustration with Erin definitely hindered me from fully enjoying Conner as much as I had initially hoped I would. The book itself is actually pretty good and does have some solid character development. The shining glory for Conner has to be the plot twists, especially that of Conner and Filtiarn being the same person with a split personality. If it wasn’t for Erin’s thick-headed tendencies I feel like Conner would have been a much smoother read, and I probably could have given it 3 or maybe, because of the excellent use of plot twists, a 4 star review. As it is I would say to check out Conner for yourself as an eBook (currently 3.99$ to buy on amazon, free for Prime members) and see how you like it. It is quite similar to the other werewolf books that have been released lately, and if you enjoy those, and are able to ignore Erin’s lack of good judgement better than I could then you will probably enjoy Conner. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed my review!

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My Rating System

5 Smiling Frodos - I LOVED the book! This is one of my absolute favorites and I will reread it countless times. Recommended for anyone, a must read!

4 Smiling Frodos - A very good read. It had some very minor flaws that kept it from being a favorite but I definitely enjoyed it and will probably reread it when I get the chance. Recommended for anyone.

3 Smiling Frodos - A good book. There are notable flaws in one (or more) of the major categories (Plot/Characters/World Building/Romance/Writing Style) but it isn't enough to stop the book from being enjoyable. 3 is a POSITIVE rating on this blog! Recommended for fans of the book's genre/book's author.

2 Smiling Frodos - A decent book. There are notable flaws in multiple major categories. Too many issues to be a reread. If I rate it a 2 I am not unhappy I read it but I don't recommend the book. Read only if you LOVE the author/series.

1 Smiling Frodo - I'm not a fan. Major issues across the board. Bad flow and feel, major category issues (usually at least 3/5), didn't like the writing and/or the choices the author made. Books receiving a 1 I barely made myself finish, skip it.